Shipbuilding and Management (1671), Nicolaes Witsen

Author/s M. Huystee

Year of publication 1994

Report Number: 91

Introduction
Translating a book or a chapter on 17th century shipbuilding, written in 17th century Dutch, is not an easy job, Therefore this English translation of Nicolaes Witsen's text must be seen as a very tentative attempt, which undoubtedly will keep many questions unanswered, The Dutch text itself is in many ways obscure and convoluted, and contains many unsolved problems, The English translation is consequently often even more vague and obscure.

Translating the used tenninoiogy has proven to be very challenging at the least I decided therefore that only the most literate translation would be of any use to those who would like to get an insight into this extremely interesting work, but who do not master the Dutch language sufficiently,